Family time

For four days my sister, brother in law and little nephew were in town. Part of their epic road trip around New Zealand, I had been looking forward to their visit for months. This is the first time I'd had family come and visit me overseas and it felt good. Like most people out there, missing my family is a real challenge for me. In the digital era, Skype, emails and mobile phones, things are a lot easier than for those who traveled twenty years ago. But there is nothing like the real thing. I miss drinking tea with my mum, talking crap with my oldest friends and watching action flicks with my dad.  For a brief time I got to have some family time.

 Unfortunately I was working two out of the fours days they were here, but all in all, it worked out well.

Our activities in town had to accommodate a toddler, but I think we did pretty good.  For the first two nights they were in town we hung out playing cards, celebrated somebody's birthday dining on steaks and chatted about life.

Then at the weekend the fun continued.  On the Saturday we took an excursion to Wanaka, driving through the mountain pass.  I cannot tell you how great it felt to be in a car,watching the scenery roll by. Once in Wanaka we had some fun at 'puzzle world,' an attraction committed to illusions and er,  puzzles (bringing a toddler along did bring entertainment here - although the maze proved a bit too much).  After watching out over the lake, we headed to Arrowtown (my third visit!!!) which was covered in icicles.

Our Sunday, was spent at the Kiwi bird life park, which was a bit too expensive for my taste, but I did get to see my first Kiwi Bird which are a lot bigger than I had been led to believe.  Then in the evening, we had the family round for a roast and farewells.

Like all good things, our weekend had to come to an end. Thank you to my family, for spending a few precious days in Queenstown.